Andaleeb Badiee Banta, Curator of European and American Art at the AMAM, began to look further into this amazing story for a possible exhibition and found that both the current and previous di-rectors of the AMAM had also investigated the WWII-era residency of the Morgan Library and Museum's Rembrandt prints, gathering archival documents, letters, and other information about their se-cret stay at Oberlin. Banta was interested in the way these prints are used in an academic setting to forward both technical and art- historical knowledge of the artist and his materials. As she pursued her examination of Rembrandt prints in the context of academic collections, Banta contacted Andrew C. Weislogel, Curator of Earlier European and American Art at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Partnering with professors and students in science, computer engineering, and art history, Weislogel had simultaneously been working on a project to create an electronic database of watermarks found in papers used in Rembrandt's prints. The project known as Watermark Identifica-tion in Rembrandt's Etchings (WIRE) builds on a number of exist-ing print sources to expand the knowledge and search capability of those wishing to use watermarks to learn more about Rembrandt's materials and methods. The resulting exhibition "Lines of Inquiry: Learning from Rem- brandt's Etchings," a joint effort between Cornell University's Her-bert F. Johnson Museum of Art and Oberlin College's Allen Me- morial Art Museum, brought together over 60 prints spanning Rembrandt's long and prolific career. In the spirit of education, both the exhibition and accompanying catalogue are heavily didactic and offer numerous insights into Rembrandt's working methods and materials. The prints are organized thematically both in the exhi-bition and the catalogue and each object is accompanied by a de-scriptive label which is expanded in the catalogue. The labels and catalogue entries pertain to all aspects of the prints including state, printing techniques, substrate, identification of watermarks if pres-ent, and place in the artist's body of work. In addition, examples of prints on different types of substrates, such as Japanese paper, vari-ous European papers, and even an example on vellum, show how the characteristics of the printing surface affect the visual impact of the image. After seeing this exhibition, one cannot help but believe Rem- brandt was unsurpassed by his contemporaries in his understand-ing of how materials and technique could affect the final outcome of a single print. A number of works are shown in several differ-ent printing states for comparison. These groupings offer insight into the artist's working method and serve as an exploration of how Rembrandt chose to modify his plates. In the creation of multiple states, he continued to refine the image while simultaneously creat-ing various versions of the print as a way to entice collectors to buy several impressions. He clearly put great thought into everything from seamlessly melding etching and drypoint to his choice of pa-per to the careful wiping of the printing plate. A prime example is the presentation of four different states of Clement de Jonghe, Printseller, 1651, etching and drypoint. The curators use these prints to examine how Rembrandt progressed through the various iterations of this image from the first state to the third (the second state, not on view), through the fourth, and finally the fifth. As details in the image shift, it is possible to see how the artist deftly transitioned from something akin to an initial sketch to a refined composition with the sitter's face in shadow, cre-ating a more mysterious gaze and a striking contrast between light and dark that is missing in the first state. In addition, the first state was printed on Japanese paper, rather than the European printing papers on which the other three states are printed. The Japanese paper changes the mood of the image with its softer, creamy tone and smoother surface, lending a warmth that is missing from the brighter European papers. The exhibition also offered a vehicle for the curators to delve fur-ther into findings from data gathered during the WIRE project and glean more information about individual prints. At the beginning of the exhibition, visitors can use a large touch screen to explore how the WIRE project's web interface helps researchers identify and in-terpret watermarks in Rembrandt's printing papers. At present, the website is in development and not available for use outside Cornell, although anyone can submit an image for inclusion in a growing watermark database. The long-term vision is for an interface similar to that available in the gallery to be made accessible for anyone to upload an image of a watermark and do their own comparison. A simple decision tree helps the user determine whether their water-mark is a known variant of the over 50 visual types of watermarks currently catalogued in the system or something never seen before. As more images are added and watermarks identified, the pool of information will continue to grow. As an example of how this information can be utilized, in my ca- pacity as a paper conservator, I was asked to remove a backing off a small Rembrandt print in the AMAM's collection in preparation for this exhibition. During the course of treatment, a partial watermark was identified and found to be the first example of this particular watermark catalogued in the database. The curators determined that the object was likely a posthumous print, since the paper associated with this watermark was not used in the artist's lifetime. While the watermark was added to the WIRE database and listed as a newly catalogued watermark, the print was not included in the exhibition, for obvious reasons. As more watermarks are added to the WIRE database, future researchers will be able to make previously unknown connections between different prints. It may be possible to determine multiple plates printed onto the same sheet by matching up partial water- marks or to follow the trajectory of multiple states of plates as the artist moved through various batches of paper. Based on informa-tion from the database so far, research has shown it is very likely Rembrandt was printing most of his plates in his own studio, as it is possible to trace prints pulled from a single batch of paper over the span of several years. Since his output would have been much less than that of a commercial printer, Rembrandt would have had a stack of paper available for a longer period of time. The possibilities for further research thanks to the WIRE project are truly endless, and "Lines of Inquiry" serves as the beginning of a new era of schol-arship and understanding of one of the most celebrated printmak-ers in history.
